


A Funny Old World

by LizRambler



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-06 04:10:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21220343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizRambler/pseuds/LizRambler
Summary: A different take on the idea that Rose was keeping something from Ten at Doomsday.





	A Funny Old World

Rose hadn’t spoken in thirty-six minutes and twenty seconds.

He was not nervous but he was curious. After the Tardis had disappeared, she had held his hand in a death grip. Even now, after an hour walk to a decent road, a taxi ride to a zeppelin dock, a hastily arranged passage on said zeppelin, and settling into seats with a great view, she had clung to him. His fingers were beyond numb, and tingling dangerously but he wasn’t about to ask her to let go.

And if he was honest, it reassured him that she wasn’t going to just chuck him out one of the many large and lux windows in the airship. He didn’t fancy falling into the stormy gray oceans below. And her not wanting to toss him was good news! Great news even! Still, …she was pale and had mangled the fingernails on her free hand. The Doctor could tell from her death grip on his hand that she was dehydrated, running a slight fever and beyond exhausted. That last bit he could tell from the purple under her eyes, not the relative heat and dryness of her skin against his.

Surreptitiously, he leaned in and sniffed her to gain more information. Blunted half Time Lord Senses were still miles beyond what your average human could manage and he was grateful for that small favor because oxygenating his blood was a real hassle with the one heart. Her scent was delightfully Rose, mingling with a combination of old favorites-vanilla shampoo, light fruity perfume-with a new scent that was earthy. It reminded him of...grass? Also, they both smelled like soot, the leftover scent of Tardis and each other. But grass? Grass… he rolled the scent around in his mind and tried to link it with anything untoward, but couldn’t. The scent tickled his memories but nothing specific came to mind.

Rose let out a long breath and released his fingers. Blood rushed into his abused digits. He bit his lip against the pins and needles sensation. He tried not to be too obvious as he shook his hand out to restore normal sensitivity and grinned when he saw her do the same.

“Exhausted,” she breathed as she hugged herself.

The Doctor made a noncommittal sound of agreement in the hopes of coaxing more words from her. Even dry and wispy, her voice soothed his jangled nerves. Instead, her eyes fluttered as she fought sleep and a jaw cracking yawn escaped her. The Doctor mirrored her, annoyed that his new form wasn’t as resilient as his previous.

“Rose?” he asked and made to move the divider out of the way.

Nodding, she slid closer and he wrapped an arm around her. She settled against him and huffed out another breath. “I have something to tell you.”

“Are you leaving me with Torchwood?” the Doctor asked, trying to sound teasing but letting his insecurities rule him for a minute.

Rose sat up so fast she cracked her head on his jaw. “No! No never! No, you’re coming home with me. I’ve seen what happens when I’m not around. You get into all sorts of-Why would you think-?”

It was a testament to how tired Rose Tyler was that she couldn’t finish a single thought. He grinned merrily in her direction.

“Thought they might want to ah, run tests and…” he said airily. He lifted his hand and mentally waved away words such as vivisection and necropsy. “Good. Staying with you is good. I am always sort of attracting trouble and human-ish, so that makes me even more jeopardy friendly.”

“How so,” Rose teased, settling against him again, some of the tension leaving her body as they molded themselves together. It was so familiar to him yet not. He took a second to revel in how nice it was to just be together again, talking. The Crucible hadn’t exactly been the best place for playing catch up and a cuddle.

“Well, look at you,” he teased back. “Dimension jumping on your own...” He beamed proudly at her. “I can’t be blamed for that. You literally jumped into jeopardy. Can’t blame the alien for that one, much as your mother might want to…”

She swatted him playfully. “Stop… I learned it from you. Seems like Time Lords are always near danger,” she mused, giving him side-eye.

“Hardly,” he replied, pleased as Rose became boneless against him. “Danger adjacent, surely.”

“Still,” she breathed out and the tension returned, “We do have to talk.”

“Well,” he drawled, sinking into her seat. “If you’re not going to abandon me to the tender mercies of Torchwood, whatever it is can wait until we get home.”

Rose slipped an arm around him and turned her cheek to place her head against his chest. He completed the hug easily, humming happily. This was what he had been missing. Rose fell asleep in seconds. The Doctor wasn’t quite there yet. He took slow deep breaths filled with canned air scented with Rose and a hint of Clinique Happy? He sneezed.

A shadow crossed him.

“She asleep?” Jackie Tyler asked quietly.

The Doctor nodded and instead of leaving him to join Rose in dreamland, Jackie sat across from him. He wondered why she was still up. She looked just as tired as her daughter. She smiled and placed two bottles of water on the seat next to him. She added two bags of Walkers crisps and a banana.

“How are you then?” Jackie asked.

“Confused,” he answered honestly. “Yesterday everything was normal. Today everything is different.” he glanced down at the woman in his arms breathing evenly. He smiled incredulously.

“You going to stay with us then?” Jackie asked, opening her own bottle of water. “Rose tell you yet?”

“Tell me what?” he asked.

Jackie nodded. “Oh, she hasn’t. I thought she would straight away but we were busy saving the world and then getting here. Plus she hasn’t slept properly in ages. You’re going to have to watch her Doctor. Get fluids into her. Keep her calories up. She got so focused on saving the world that she’s too thin now. Fix that.”

Exasperated the Doctor grumbled, “I don’t need you to tell me how to take care of Rose!”

Jackie snorted. “Been gone four years and he thinks he knows what my daughter needs?” She poked at him and the Doctor resisted the urge to throttle her. “Things have changed mister. Big things and my son Tony has better sense than you, and he’s three going on forty.” Jackie stood up. “Just you go easy on her when she tells you.”

“Tells me what?” he asked the infuriating woman’s back.

Sleep claimed him an hour later. A few hours after that, he was startled awake by the zeppelin landing on a large pad near the Thames. Rose didn’t wake. So when Jackie appeared, instead of allowing her to wake Rose, he just hefted her up into his arms and carried her into the hired car that was waiting. Pete Tyler was sitting in the back seat. Jackie squeaked and slipped into her husband’s arms.

The Doctor placed Rose into the car where she grumbled a bit but didn’t wake. Pete’s eyes widened in surprise as the Doctor slid in next to Rose and arranged himself as her body pillow. He beamed at Pete. “Hello, Pete Tyler! Look at you! You look hale and healthy. Surprising, considering who you’re married to.”

“Oh hush you,” Jackie growled.

Pete kept an arm around Jackie and the Doctor approved of the obvious affection between them. Jackie Tyler deserved her happy ending and now she got to keep her Pete and her Rose. Well, at least until he figured out how to grow the Tardis clipping that Donna had slipped into his pocket along with a few spare sonic screwdrivers and a lot of other fun and useful tech. But until then Jackie’s whole family was together.

“This is a surprise twist,” Pete said with an affectionate glance at the sleeping Tyler. “My daughter said she would be staying with you, not that you would be staying with us. I am going to need a full reckoning, Doctor.” The older Tyler’s tone was patronizing.

Resisting the urge to refuse, the Doctor just gritted his teeth and stayed silent. He only owed Rose allegiance and explanations. Everyone else was just… everyone else.

Jackie tapped his leg and winked at the Doctor. “Oh, I doubt that, Pete. This one’s a sphinx. I’ll fill you in after I’ve had a good lie down and kissed my son. Rose can fill in the blanks this one will leave. He’ll need an identity.”

“I’ve got psychic paper,” the Doctor argued. “And my sonic…”

Jackie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, still. We don’t want questions. Do we?” she asked both men. She turned to Pete and said, “We saved the world. The Doctor had to become two people to do it. And now my Rose… I don’t lose my Rose.” Jackie burst into tears.

Uncomfortable, the Doctor reached out and touched her shoulder. Jackie dropped her hand on top and squeezed. The domestic approach was going to take some getting used to. He felt the itchy need to jump out of the car and run away from the heavy emotions in the car. Luckily the weight of Rose leaning on him grounded him because he had nowhere to run to this time.

“See?” he teased. “I’m not so bad, am I?”

“Yeah,” Jackie sniffed.

“There are two of you?” Pete asked.

Rose didn’t wake up on the car ride or even after he gently removed her shoes and covered her with a duvet. He had drunk the bottles of water, ate the crisps and was thinking about the banana. He felt better with a full-ish stomach and his limbs were heavy. But he managed to get to the kitchen and back without running into staff or Jackie. Jackie hadn’t even bothered to go through the ruse of showing him a guest room. He wasn’t leaving Rose and they both knew it. Pete had glared a bit, but Jackie had dragged him away.

It was half past one in the afternoon. Blackout curtains kept the room pleasantly dark. He kicked off his trainers and removed his jacket before climbing onto the bed next to her. Rose’s room was mostly empty. There were a few pictures on the nightstand, including a grainy one of he and Rose dressed as wait staff. A battered sonic screwdriver sat in front of it. He didn’t touch anything; he just laid back and closed his eyes.

The sound of the shower woke him up. The heat and humidity in the room were rapidly changing so the shower had been on for at least four minutes. Stretching, he heard bones crack and realign as the fog slowly left his sleepy mind. That was new. He thought he might have dreamed, but since he didn’t feel vaguely terrified, he couldn’t be sure. Sitting up, he ran a hand over his face and mussed his hair.

The curtains had been drawn back and the sun had set. The tray he had sneaked up from the kitchen was empty. Rose had eaten all the biscuits except one. Also, she had left him half the banana and a bottle of Vitex. He munched the banana, ignored the Vitex and saved the biscuit for last. He was rank. New human form came with new bacteria and new smells. He was considering the risk of getting slapped if he joined Rose in the shower when the water shut off. Rose appeared wrapped in a short towel. He did not even try to disguise the once over. Rose grinned.

“Hi,” he said and oh when did he start sounding so breathy and young?

“Hello,” she replied.

“You look,” he began admonishing himself not to say edible. But she was wrapped in a pink Peep colored towel and smelled like vanilla soap. She was practically a desert. “Better… ah, after…”

“Yeah, sorry,” Rose apologized, coming closer to him and bringing the heady scent of her clean skin and the light scent of chlorinated water and shampoo. “The last few jumps happened quickly and then the whole saving the world thing… I haven’t slept more than a handful of minutes in the last… I don’t know… week? Two weeks? A month maybe.”

“And my company is a soporific?”

“Never,” Rose replied. “Just… felt safe, I guess.”

His face was going to break from smiling.

“But I could live without the smell.” She wrinkled her nose.

“Right, new humanish body needs more extensive hygienic care. No more sonic showers for me. Well, for a while until I set up a unit for us. I’ll just…” he thumbed in the direction of the shower.

Rose nodded. “I’ll get dressed and have food sent up.”

“Don’t suppose someone can lend me pajamas?” he asked as he shucked his manly maroon Tee and undid his belt.

“I’ve some in pink,” Rose told him.

“If it’s those sleep shorts you wear, forget it. I’ll freeze to death and my legs don’t look half so good as yours. Too many manly man hairs,” he said as he closed the bathroom door before she could see he hadn’t had a chance to grab pants on the Tardis and was now reduced to jacket, tee, and trousers.

The shower was heaven! The vanilla body wash was like dousing himself in her scent and the shampoo was delightfully fruity. He did a spot check and his body appeared to be the same as before. Bacteria, and lack of a second heart notwithstanding, he felt like he had in his first body. He could still feel his mole!

Once clean and toweling off, he knew it was time for them to talk about whatever had made Rose nervous in his company yesterday. Was it the meta crisis? That wasn’t too weird, was it? Not to Rose Tyler. She had seen all manner of aliens and planets and things… A loved one splitting into two nearly identical persons had to be par for the time-traveling adventuress course, wasn’t it? And she wasn’t showing any signs of rejecting him, not if walking around in a scandalously short pink towel in front of him was any indication.

There was a bang on the bedroom door. He heard the door open and Jackie stage whispered, “Did you tell him yet?”

“Mum, he’s just woken up,” Rose protested.

“Two days Rose Tyler,” Jackie admonished. “Or have you forgotten the date?”

What happened in two days? The Doctor paused in vigorously scrubbing at his hair to press himself up against the bathroom door to more effectively eavesdrop.

“Stop, he just woke up. We need to eat and get him clothes and a million other things.” Rose told her mother.

“Why are you worried? He’s the Doctor,” Jackie proclaimed. And just what did she mean by that? Although, it was nice to have the support.

“I know who he is,” Rose growled.

“Then tell him,” Jackie insisted and the Doctor could now smell tea. His mouth watered. “Tell him now. He needs to know.”

“What if he leaves?” Rose whispered and if he had had human ears he never would have caught it. His blood ran cold.

“Then we’ll deal with that like we handle everything else, together, love. Now I want you and him to eat yourselves silly. Two thin the pair of you.” Jackie said in an approximation of her normal tone.

When she was gone, the Doctor wrapped his own scandalously short pink towel around his middle and entered the room. Rose was in jeans and a loose white tee. The tension was back in her spine as she surveyed the trolley with tea and sandwiches piled high. The scent of tea was overwhelming. He sauntered over and prepared the tea the way he remembered from when she traveled with him. When she didn’t reach for the teacup, he placed it in her hands.

“You still need to drink another liter of water before I’ll feel comfortable with your level of hydration,” he told her honestly. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed how much weight you’ve lost in the last few years.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “It’s all the running.”

“Then eat more cake.”

“I already have a mother, thanks,” Rose remarked but she drank her tea.

“Good, because I don’t want to be your mother, Rose.” he nicked the sandwich third from the bottom because it had a better distribution of peanut butter and jam than the other ones. When Rose didn’t grab one, he handed her one and wouldn’t stop staring until she viciously tore into it and wolfed it down. He handed her a second one.

Rose paced and ate as he sat on the edge of the bed, trying not to flash her. “We need to get you some clothing. Also, Pete will get you a fake ID. They’re strict about paperwork here. Do you want to be John Smith or something?”

“Can I just be ‘the Doctor’? Like Prince?” he asked as he observed her renewed tension and nerves. He wished she would just spit out whatever was bothering her. It would be so much easier if she just told him and he could...deal with it.

“No,” Rose said and alighted next to him for a second. “You need a name. Humans have names.”

“Ha! Well, good thing I’m not human! And I have a name or two or three…”

“You can’t be ‘Doctor Oncoming Storm,’ y’know.” she teased before tearing into the pad of her thumb. If she started twirling her earing, the Doctor was going to throttle her. All of this not talking…talking around the point… Was that what talking to him was like?

“I can call myself Storm,” he remarked. “Or Bob. Good old Bob. I hear he’s an alien.”

Rose snorted. “No.”

He ate another sandwich. Rose dropped a loose pair of sweatpants next to him. He slipped them on and tossed the pink towel towards the bathroom. When he turned back she was handing him a black tee. It was a bit snug but at least he was decent. But it would never do. He just wasn’t the sort of guy that wore black.

“We need to talk,” he said.

“Yes, we do,” Rose agreed.

“Start with the easy stuff?” he asked, eyeing her from underneath his rather floppy and damp fringe. When she nodded he blurted, “I really missed you!”

They hugged and burst into giggles. “I missed you too,” she said into his shoulder. He squeezed her again. “You really are you and you really are here with me!” she said breathlessly.

“I KNOW!” he exclaimed boyishly. “How brilliant is this?”

“Are you dangerous?” she asked, bringing it back around to what he had said before getting on the Tardis.

“I’ve always been dangerous, Rose,” he replied evenly. “Is that okay?”

Rose nodded. “Yeah. S’fine. I’m not exactly a cuddly, fluffy bunny.”

He rolled his eyes, “I’ve seen you in the mornings.”

“S’when I’m my most dangerous,” Rose agreed and laughed. “You snore.”

“How dare you,” he said in mock outrage. “So do you and you drooled on me.”

“Oh, no, I ruined your hideous blue suit. What was wrong with brown?”

“I was wearing it at the time,” he said, not bothering to distinguish between ‘hims’ and unwilling to talk about blue and mourning colors on a planet from another universe. “What’s wrong with blue? I like it. Not sure if I like brown anymore… I might do. Feel sort of regenerated?”

“Same teeth though,” Rose remarked. “Same hair,” she said and fluffed it up, “if a bit flat. I can handle it if you don’t like brown anymore. Maybe you like pink?”

He snorted and replied, “Manly pinks, surely.”

“I don’t live here,” she said, twisting the ends of her tee into a wrinkled mess.

“Oh?”

“I have a house. It’s not far from here.”

Doubt filled him. Would he live here? Would he live with her? Would he have to live alone? It must have shown on his face because she hugged him. Something in his chest loosened. Whatever she needed to tell him, it wasn’t ‘go away’ or ‘I don’t believe in you.’ So it probably didn’t matter all that much. Still, she had offered to get a mortgage with him once upon a time. Would she do it again?

“Um, Mum wants us to stay here tonight. But tomorrow, I’m taking you home. It’s a bit late but we can order stuff on the internet and have it sent here. They have drones that deliver things to your home. It’s weird but fast and you need um, things…”

He focused on the ease with which she had said she was taking him home. Still needing things rankled. He made a face. “I feel like a pet.”

“Alien pet,” Rose agreed, continuing, “Only one of your kind. How alien are you anyhow? I don’t think I like human blokes… just Time Lord ones.”

That answered a question that had been plaguing him. No replacement man then. She wasn’t getting married in two days. Good. That was good. He reached out and twirled a piece of her blonde hair around his fingers and grinned at her. “Oh? Well then I am all Time Lord where it counts,” he replied and tapped his brain. He gave her a wink and a tongue click to see her laugh.

She raised an eyebrow and he sighed.

“I have retained my brilliant intellect. Senses are dulled but still quite good. Single heart, that’s bad...well, not so bad just different and easy to stake or shoot. Um, eleven of my senses are just fine and the twelfth is there, just muted. Need to test telepathy,” he said and reached out to touch her temple. Rose flinched away, “Or not?”

She backed away from him. “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Rose chanted. She turned her back on him which only increased his anxiety and started rummaging through a rucksack on the floor.

“Rose?” Did she not like telepathy anymore? He had touched her mind on multiple occasions. Mostly while they were… Oh. “Too soon?” he asked.

“I…” Rose stammered and continued rummaging. She spun on her heels. “I’ve lost my watch.”

“It’s quarter till seven,” he replied. “So, you don’t need a watch. I am a watch. I’m more accurate than a beryllium clock and that’s better than a Timex. Also, I am accurate to more than 200 meters below sea level… if I don’t drown.”

“No, no, no,” Rose chanted. “It’s… I need...” The fight went out of her. “Probably fine. C’mon, let’s go downstairs. We can order some things. Then when Mum and Pete go to sleep you can tell me all about Donna and Jack and Martha and Sarah Jane.”

The Doctor did not get off the bed. Rose offered him her hand. He took it but did not allow her to pull him to his feet. “Rose just tell me. Whatever it is, I can handle it. I am well over nine hundred years old and I am not a child. I can help.”

Rose tightened her grip and looked away. Her eyes were watery. This wasn’t sitting well with the Doctor. He had promised himself a nice simple life, well, a sort of simple life with the occasional alien invasion to thwart, probably. Oh, who the hell was he kidding? He had expected everything to be as weird and fantastical as ever but with Rose. He had been prepared to win the girl over to his charming half humany self, but she seemed won over and yet not won over and it was awfully confusing.

“Please,” Rose begged with her watery eyes and her worried frown.

“Oh fine, dress me up, Rose Tyler but this is the last time I will be put off. I’m the Doctor and I do not like to be kept in the dark,” he grumbled.

Rose didn’t answer but grinned a bit at his ‘Oncoming Storm’ tone. The Doctor rolled his eyes and refused to pout.

He let her pull him to his feet and lead him down the hardwood floors of the Tyler mansion and down the carpeted steps to a rich mahogany paneled library. His fingers tripped over the spines as they approached large comfortable leather sofas. Rose plopped him down and went to get her laptop. The Doctor liked this library. He bounced off of the sofa so he could examine the large window overlooking the grounds. He ran his hands over the mantel and picked up several pictures of Rose with Jackie and a baby and Mickey! Grinning fondly at Rose’s ex, he found a watch.

Spinning around, he twirled the watch. It was a lady’s watch, very expensive with a rich bluey-purple leather band that happened to match Rose’s leather jacket perfectly. It also had one of those rubbish phases of the moon charts on it. But the fun part was somehow the backdrop was a picture of his Tardis, all lovely and blue.

Rose had turned to face the window. The Doctor bounced over to join her. “I found your watch! It wasn’t hard. It was just over there… Rose?”

“Doctor,” Rose said in a small voice. “Did the Doctor get us back on the day we left?”

He glanced out the window at the sky full of stars and the fat round moon. He closed his eyes and opened his mind to the feel of his new Earth. “When ah, what day did you leave?”

“Tuesday,” Rose said and her voice sounded strange, gruff.

“Oh, well then I may have um, Rose, it is Sunday. And in the scheme of things, isn’t that great for me? My track record is a year off, sometimes hundreds and this time I just scooted us forward two days-ish. Pretty good. Rose?”

The door to the library banged open and Jackie slid into the room. “Rose it’s Sunday!”

“Why is everyone so obsessed with the day of the week around here?” the Doctor complained.

“Don’t be stupid,” Jackie said and turned back to Rose. “C’mon sweetheart. We need to get you down to the wine cellar before it’s too late.”

The Doctor sniffed and the scent of grass he had scented on Rose in the plane was back. It was heavier now and it tickled his memory nonstop until it all snapped into place. “Oh, my stupid human dulled olfactory system made me almost miss it. I know that scent.” He tugged at his hair for the extra mental stimulation before turning to Jackie. “Scotland.”

Jackie was focused on Rose. “Rose, come on darling,” she cooed before hissing at him, “Help me, you daft alien. We need to get her downstairs before it starts.”

“Scotland,” he repeated.

“What? Who cares about Scotland?” Jackie shouted.

“I do! Because it’s where I first smelled that….”

“Oh don’t tell me she hasn’t told you yet? I warned her!” Jackie shouted.

Rose spun away from the window. Her eyes were black pools.

“When we met the Lupine wavelength haemovarioform,” he finished. “This is what she wanted to tell me?” he asked Jackie. “Rose is a werewolf?”

Rose howled. The Doctor watched as a light golden brown fur raced down her skin like water and how her hands elongated becoming more paw-like and tipped in large sharp claws. She even sprouted a tail. The Doctor just stared, drinking it in. “Oh wow and I thought you were beautiful before…”

Jackie slapped at him. “Run you idiot.”

Rose bounded forward, claws extended. The Doctor pushed Jackie out of the library and slammed the door shut in Rose’s face. He leaned against it, breathing hard. His human lungs were rubbish at panic breathing. Lovely adrenaline rushed through his body and the world came alive around him. He shoved Jackie away from the door just in time as Rose’s claws turned the thick oak into ribbons. Lucky he had moved or…

“Where’s Pete and Tony?” the Doctor asked, prioritizing.

Jackie raced ahead of him and he followed because he had no idea where to go or what to do just now. If asked, he would deny that fact. By the time someone asked him though, he would have a plan, probably.

“I had Pete take the staff and Tony out of the house as soon as I realized. You and your stupid driving! You can’t ever get anything right, can you?” Jackie groused as she led him to the back of the mansion and out onto the lawn.

“Me? Whose idea was it not to mention the possibility that Rose would try to kill us? She’s always been rather fond of me. Now murdering you,” he murmured and she slapped at him.

Jackie spun to face the mansion. “Hopefully she’ll tear the house up for a bit until we can get Torchwood to come and sedate her… And she can’t control it, you prawn.”

Their scent trails were going to lead Rose right to them. He calculated about ten seconds before Rose smashed through the glass doors and the open grounds. After that, it would be four seconds before she pounced on the pair of them. He could buy Jackie time if they ran in different directions. “Jackie go left. I’ll get her to chase me.”

Jackie grabbed him. “She was afraid you would reject her.”

“That’s just…” he began and then corrected to, “I would never. I’m not like that. She’s Rose.”

“That’s what I told her,” Jackie replied with a grin. “Now let’s run so she doesn’t kill us.”

The doors smashed and Rose was on the lawn. Her tee had been torn to shreds. Her cute little nose had extended into a small snout. He swore at himself. How had he not noticed her being bitten or scratched back in Scotland?

“Jackie, RUN!” He turned the older Tyler around and shoved her forward.

He stayed. He needed Rose to focus on him. “Rose! Rose Tyler you are gorgeous!”

Rose stopped, scenting the air, her black eyes hunting. He waved. A howl erupted out of her and his newly human nervous system quailed. He ignored it, using his brain to shut off the fear and keep the adrenaline. He’d need it for the running. He didn’t like the idea of Torchwood sedating her either. But she couldn’t roam free.

When she leaped toward him in an amazing wolfish lope, he turned tail and ran. He missed his long coat, knowing it would have heroically swished behind him before he remembered he couldn’t regenerate and he couldn’t kill the beast. He loved her. That would be extremely counterproductive.

He was fast but she was faster and eating up ground like the werewolf she was. He turned back to the house. If he could get his sonic, maybe he could put her into a light doze like he had those lions in Rome. Also, taking her back to the house was taking her farther away from her mother. Rose wouldn’t thank him if she ate her own mother. Think of what Freud would say?

The night air was warm and a light wind was carrying his scent directly to her. That was good. It meant Jackie and everyone was upwind of her. Rose gained on him and by the time he crashed through what was left of patio and doors, she was on him. He slipped into the house and went right into the kitchens. He grabbed a pan as he went.

Rose leaped onto the counter and he bashed her in the face as hard as he could with the pot. He winced as she crashed backwards onto the floor. “I am so sorry Rose! But I can’t let you hurt anyone.”

Growls answered him.

“And now I’m going to run away from you,” he replied and dropped the pan, taking off up the stairs.

The werewolf Rose was a little slower and he managed the landing before she crashed down onto his back, jaws snapping inches from his throat. “Kill,” she said in a husky voice that he was not going to admit turned him on just a little bit. Oh, this new body was kinky because he was also enjoying her holding him down. “Worry about that later, Doctor.”

Using an old Venusian Aikido move, he flipped Rose off and watched her slide down the hallway. Before she was done sliding, she had righted herself and was barreling back toward him. He dove sideways into a guest room.

“Oh this wallpaper is hideous!” he griped at the lurid red cabbages and roses.

He slammed the door shut behind him and searched the room for a way out. Rose’s room was to the right. He just needed to get there. He raced to the window and threw it open. Hopping out onto the ledge, he started inching his way to Rose’s room. Behind him, he heard Rose destroying the guest room and perversely he was pleased. Jackie would have to redecorate now.

Her wolfish form appeared outside the window. Rose’s howl reverberated through the concrete he was desperately clinging too. “Now Rose, I know we haven’t seen one another in a while but maybe, just maybe, you don’t want to kill me?”

Claws sliced the side of the house as she climbed partially out of the window. “Kill,” she growled again. “Kill Doctor.”

“Yes, that’s right, I’m the Doctor,” he said and swallowed audibly. “At least you know who you want to kill.”

Rose disappeared. The Doctor let out a breath and kept inching towards her room and his sonic. The window was only a few feet away now. He moved slowly as he listened for signs of wolfy Rose. He heard crashing but nothing distinctive. He paused outside the window and turned slowly to face it. The room was clear.

He grabbed at the window frame and inched it up slowly. It was stiff. He had to put his back into it a bit. The Doctor was huffing and puffing at this point. And he would definitely blame a lack of oxygen for what happened next. His foot hit a hole where a chunk of masonry had cracked off during the Cybermen invasion and no one had ever noticed it. It slipped off and he went down hard onto his other knee which was too wide for the ledge. He was falling by degrees, fingers gripping the window but he had no hope of holding on. His fingers strained as the weight of his entire lanky frame came down onto them.

This was so not how he wanted to die. Alright, this was sort of a cool way to die, but not now. His life flashed before his eyes and he realized he hadn’t ever eaten a whole German Forest cake himself and swore as his fingers released.

He dropped. His eyes closed. And he wasn’t dead. He opened his eyes and was suspended in midair by a very wolfy Rose Tyler. Drool was dripping from her muzzle.

“My what sharp teeth you have,” he said unable to help himself.

Rose tossed him into the room. He crashed into her wardrobe and it exploded into splinters. She turned to face him with her jet black eyes. She raised her claws and howled triumphantly. He felt fabric under his hands and grinned. “Oh Rose Tyler, I wasn’t sure what sort of man I was this time, but it looks like I am exactly the same man,” he told her, stuffing his hand into the pocket of the jacket beneath him and pulling out his sonic screwdriver. “Because I’m still lucky!”

He thumbed the sonic on and switched quickly to the setting he remembered from all those years ago when he and Rose had gone to Rome. The beast that was normally his lovely girlfriend staggered before crashing to her knees, black eyes shuttering. Within minutes, Rose Tyler, Lupine wavelength haemovarioform was snoring and drooling.

Twenty minutes later, Torchwood arrived and he wouldn’t let them into the house. The Doctor had set up the sonic to continuously play its lullaby for Rose and headed the team off at the pass. Another stroke of luck found him facing off against Jake Simmonds and not a stranger. That made things work out a lot faster.

“Did you know?” the Doctor asked the formerly spiky-haired Simmonds.

“Yeah,” Jake said. “Everybody knew. She’s got a cage in her house.”

Jackie wanted to hug him to pieces so he retreated to where Rose was and waited for her to wake up. He must have fallen asleep because small, familiar hands were touching his face and checking his pulse. He opened an eye to spot the concerned amber eyes of one Rose Tyler, returned to human form.

“Alright Rose?” he croaked.

She burst into tears and crushed him to her. A sharp pain zipped up his back. He gritted his teeth against it and let her hug the life out of him. When she pulled back, he asked, “I thought we were close, Rose Tyler.”

“We are,” Rose said, looking guilty.

He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Then why didn’t you tell me you were scratched in Scotland?”

Rose shrugged. “Didn’t know. Not lying,” she said when he made a skeptical sound. “I didn’t! I only found out here. It wasn’t much at first. I just liked rare meat on full moon weeks. I didn’t even make the connection until it got worse.”

“When you were living on earth like a normal werewolf and became subject to the moon,” he murmured. “Every month, month after month you were exposed to moonlight. We never did see a lot of moons, unless we were on them. It was in you that whole time, breeding. Rose Tyler the Bad Wolf, is a bad wolf?”

Rose sniffed then laughed. “Sort of, yeah.” 

She fell silent and so sad it was breaking his hearts…heart. In a small voice, she asked, “Are you gonna leave me? I’m a monster.”

He snorted. “No point.” He raised his shirt to show her the long trails her claws had made on his back. “See, I’m going to be a monster too. Well, more of a monster than I already am.”

Rose covered her mouth. He dropped his shirt and reached out for her hands, pulling them gently away from her face. He kissed each one.

“I did this to you,” she cried as big fat tears fell from her beautiful eyes.

“I did it to myself. I almost fell out the window. You saved me.” he told her, stretching the truth a bit. She had saved him so she could eat him but she didn't’ need to know that. Besides, it could be true. So why not let it be true. “You always save me.”

Rose hugged him tight, murmuring apologies into his shoulder.

“This was your big secret? I thought you were married and had a family. A little lycanthropy isn’t such a big deal is it?”

“Isn’t it?” Rose asked, eyes wide and so golden.

He winked. “With you, Rose Tyler, I can handle anything.”

**Author's Note:**

> I published this a while back on Teaspoon and thought it might be fun to post it over here to add to the Tentoo stories. I love Tentoo. Thanks for reading! There's a half-written sequel, comment if you're interested and maybe I'll finish the dang thing.


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